HUMAN SECURITY

‘Human security’ as a term and a concept goes back to the United Nations Human Development Report of 1994, entitled New Dimensions of Human Security. The aim of this report was to explore the idea of security as the security of human beings and not that of states and powers:

For too long, the concept of security has been shaped by the potential for conflict between states. For too long, security has been equated with the threats to a country’s borders. For too long, nations have sought arms to protect their security. For most people today, a feeling of insecurity arises more from worries about daily life than from the dread of a cataclysmic world event. Job security, income security, health security, environmental security, security from crime – these are the emerging concerns of human security all over the world (UNDP, New Dimensions of Human Security, 1994, p. 3).